knowing that you are going to be hanged in the morning."
Book II 101 didn't put any obstacle in God's way, seeing that if he didn't sin, there wouldn't be any death, and that because in fact he did sin, other mortals are set right as a result of his sin. Nothing, after all, is so effective in deterring people from sin as the thought of their imminent death.58
"He should have made him," they say, "in such a way that he wouldn't sin." Well, but that's precisely what he did do; the man was so made, after all, that if he hadn't wanted to, he wouldn't sin.
"The devil," they say, "should not have been given access to the man's woman."
On the contrary, it's she who shouldn't have given the devil access to herself. She was so made, after all, that if she hadn't wanted to she wouldn't have done so.
"The woman," they say, "shouldn't have been made." That amounts to saying that something good should not have been made, because she too of course is something good, and such a great good that the apostle says she is the glory of the man, and that all things come from God.
Again they say: "Who made the devil?" He did himself; it is not, you see, by nature but by sinning that he became the devil.59
"Well at any rate," they say, "God should not have made him if he knew he was going to sin."
On the contrary, why should he not have made him, when through his justice and providence he uses the devil's malice to set many people right? Or perhaps you haven't heard the apostle Paul saying: Whom l have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme ( 1 Tm 1 :20)? And about himself he says: And lestmy headshouldbe swollen by the greatness of the revelations, there was given me a goad of theflesh, an angel ofSatan to box my ears (2 Cor 12:7).
"So then," they say, "the devil is good, because he is useful, eh?" On the contrary, he is bad insofar as he is the devil. But God is good and almighty, able to bring about much goodness andjustice from the devil's malice. The only thing, after all, that is credited to the devil is his own will by which he strives to work evil; God's providence, which makes good use of him, is not to his credit.
58. As Dr. Johnson, 1 believe, is supposed to have said: "Nothing so concentrates the mind as knowing that you are going to be hanged in the morning." 59. "Devil" from diabolus, of which the primary meaning in Greek is "accuser," "prosecutor," "adversary"; and it is an accurate translation of the Hebrew satan, as is evident from the first two chapters of the book of Job, where Satan really appears as the public prosecutor in the heavenly court, also combining with that role the work of agentprovocateur, which makes him in due course the tempter.
102 On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees
The nature of God
29, 43. Finally, what is at issue between the Manichees and ourselves is a question of religion, and the religious question is how to think about God in a godly way. Now since we cannot deny that the human race is sunk in the sorry state of sin, they say that God's nature is sunk in a sorry state, while we deny that, and say that the nature which God made out of nothing is sunk in a sorry state, and has come to this pass, not by being forced into it but through its will to sin.
They say that God's nature is forced by God himself to repent of sins; we deny this, but say instead that the nature which God made out of nothing is obliged after it has sinned to repent of its sins. They say that the nature of God receives pardon from God himself; we deny this, but say instead that the nature which God made out of nothing, if it turns back to its God from its sins, receives pardon for its sins. They say that God's nature is subject to the necessity of change; we deny this, but say that the nature which God made out of nothing is changed by its own will. They say that God's nature is injured by the sins of others; we deny this, but say instead that no nature is harmed by any sins except its own; and we say that God is so good, sojust, so immune to harm, that he neither sins, nor does any harm to anyone who has refused to sin, and neither does anyone who has decided to sin do any harm to him.
They say that there is a nature of evil to which God was forced to hand over a part of his own nature to be tortured. We say that there is no natural evil, but that all natures are good, and God himself is the supreme nature and all other natures come from him; and all are good insofar as they exist, since God made all things very good (Gn 1:31), but ranged them in an order of graded distinctions, so that one is better than another; and in this way the whole universe is completed out of every kind of good thing, and with some of them being perfect, others imperfect, is itself a perfect whole, which God its founder and author does not for a moment cease to administer in a completely just regime. The one who chose to make all things good by his will is not subject to any necessity ofevil, seeing that since his will presides over all things, he does not experience anything in any shape or form against his will.
So then, since they say all that, and we say all this, let everyone choose which side to support. l for my part have been speaking in good faith before God, and so without any love of confrontation, without any wavering over the truth, and without prejudice to any more careful and thorough treatment of the subject, I have set out what seemed to me to be right.
Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis
